Saturday

Jul 27, 2013 at 6:55 PM

Compared to the fanfare of a president arriving in Jacksonville on Air Force One and praising JaxPort's push to bring in bigger cargo ships, the St. Johns Riverkeeper cannot command the same national spotlight.

But while President Barack Obama spoke in general terms Thursday about the benefits of expanding Jacksonville's port, the nonprofit Riverkeeper organization was emerging as the most pointed critic of the proposal.

Last year, Obama fast-tracked the federal harbor-deepening study by 14 months as part of his "We Can't Wait" initiative.

That's moving way too fast when so much is at stake in the health of the river, St. Johns Riverkeeper Lisa Rinaman said.

"We can wait," she said. "We can't afford to shortchange the evaluation process."

She said her group hasn't decided whether it would oppose the dredging. Too many other environmental studies of the dredging impact haven't been completed yet by the corps, so there's a lack of information to make a decision, she said.

Corps officials agree that it's a work in progress, and they want the feedback during the public comment period that runs through July 31.

"This is the most important part of the process," said Eric Bush, chief of the planning and policy division for the Jacksonville district.

But he said there's no flexibility in the deadline to finalize the report by April 2014.

"The We Can't Wait initiative is a very important driver," he said. "That's not a soft target. That's a hard target."

Dredging 13 miles of the river to a depth of 47 feet would cost an estimated $733 million, according to the draft report.

The biggest environmental concern hinges on how a deeper harbor would change the estuary's balance of saltwater and freshwater, which in turn affects the ability of vegetation and marine life to survive.

For example, increasing the amount of saltwater flowing into a deepened harbor would result in tidal flow boosting salinity miles upstream where eel grass - a vital part of the ecosystem - starts occurring in the general vicinity of the Buckman Bridge.

But the salinity increase would be less than 0.1 parts per thousand, said Paul Stodola, a corps biologist. From 1996 to 2001, the average salinity in that part of the river was 2.0 parts per thousand. And in 2011 when drought conditions reduced the normal flow of freshwater runoff into the river, the salinity rose to about 7.3 parts per thousand, Stodola said.

"You've got to keep the salinity increase caused by the deepening in context of what's already happening in the river," Stodola said. "You have other factors like drought that can cause much more significant and dramatic increases in salinity."

At a July 23 forum sponsored by St. Johns Riverkeeper, experts analyzing the draft report said they question the results of the model.

But even if the model is correct, the constant everyday change in salinity will have long-term environmental consequences, said Kevin Bodge, a senior vice president at Olsen Associates, a Jacksonville coastal engineering firm.

He said people have been too willing to assume dredging will create an economic windfall for port-related businesses, but that the only change that's certain is the environmental impact.

"I think the media and elected officials have swallowed this hook, line and sinker," he said.

Quinton White, executive director of the Marine Science Research Institute at Jacksonville University, questioned why the corps report shows salinity will increase the more the harbor is deepened, but the corps shows the impact on wetlands and underwater vegetation would be exactly the same for a 44-foot channel as a 50-foot channel.

"It doesn't make sense," he said.

Corps officials said even after they released the draft report May 30 they continued to run environmental models, and the impact could be less than what's in the draft report.

Public comments can be submitted until July 31 by contacting Stodola at (904) 232-3271 or by email Paul.E.Stodola@usace.army.mil.

The harbor-deepening report can be read online at http://1.usa.gov/12BBGJm. Copies of the report are at the Main Library in downtown Jacksonville and the Highlands, Regency Square and Mandarin branches.

Riverkeeper has compiled its concerns about the dredging on its website, stjohnsriverkeeper.org.

David Bauerlein: (904) 359-4581

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